Despite accusations of espionage

Egisto Ott continues to receive salary from ministry

The Egisto Ott case has caused an international stir in recent months: The two Interior Ministry employees Egisto Ott and Martin Weiss are accused of spying for Russia and passing on state secrets. However, they do not have to forgo their salary - financed by taxpayers' money.

Egisto Ott is alleged to have handed over three work cell phones and a work laptop to the Russian domestic intelligence service, for which the ex-BVT chief inspector was in custody until recently. His former superior and former counterintelligence chief Martin Weiss is facing similar accusations and may even have left for Dubai as a result.

Permanent civil servants
It is all the more surprising that the two accused are still on the payroll of the Ministry of the Interior. Although both were suspended, this suspension only ends with a legally binding decision in disciplinary proceedings. And this in turn can only be concluded once the ongoing criminal proceedings have been concluded. This is because both are pragmatic civil servants who cannot be dismissed.

"As the proceedings of the employees with regard to their criminal acts have not yet been concluded, they are entitled to their monthly salary, albeit reduced, in accordance with service law standards," says the Ministry of the Interior.

The Ministry of the Interior is not happy about this either!

Insider aus dem Bundesministerium

"Bound by the law"
Ott and Weiss will continue to receive two-thirds of their salary - as stipulated by the 1979 Civil Service Act. "The Ministry of the Interior is not thrilled about this either - but we are bound by the law," reveals an insider. Only in the event of a court sentence of more than one year's conditional imprisonment or six months' unconditional imprisonment do the alleged Russian spies lose their office and stop receiving their monthly income from Austrian taxpayers' money.

If no such prison sentences are imposed, the disciplinary proceedings will continue. "Taking into account the current legal situation, the Federal Ministry of the Interior therefore has no scope for any other measures," says department spokesman Harald Noschiel.

Egisto Ott is presumed innocent. He himself denies all allegations. "It's an absurd construct, the evidence is more than thin. He is being made a scapegoat here," Ott's lawyer Jürgen Stephan Mertens recently told the media.